Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Thirteen: The Diary of Prince Martin :In which our long-dead villains deal with a whiney git, fight a bloody war, and learn things they'd rather not know. The Diary of Prince Martin, Volume 23 The following entries are written into Prince Martin's diary as discovered by the members of Trouble Ahead during the attacks on The Clockwork Palace. The Diary is not complete, and several pages are missing. Missing pages are marked '''PAGES MISSING'.'' 1 December 1996 The members of The Deep End head to The Clockwork Palace to "attend" the manditory gathering of all Changelings demanded by The Court of Winter. Prince Lucas presides over a gathering of over a thousand (a number significantly more than the 311 that the Empire has in 2010). At the end of the meeting a Spring Courtier by the name of ###### Black comes up to complain (again) about the disapearence of his son and grandson. Lucas brushes him off and ends the formal meeting. Our villains witness a careless young Summer Courtier and aquantance of Joshua Wolff insult the Empress, breaking the Charter. They proceed to beat and humilate the young man, dragging him down to the iron cells beneath the Clockwork Palace. Our friend ###### tries to convince our villains to help him look for his son (a Changeling) and his grandson (a mundy) only to meet with more scorn and derision. He manages to get on Alec Brink's legendary bad side leading to a brief tussle. They leave with a promise to "look into things", not for Mr. Black's sake, rather because they find it interesting. 25 December 1996 At a Christmas party thrown by the Heirs to the Empire, ###### confronts the Deep Enders about the lack of finding his son and grandson. They tell him that they discovered that there was a strange gateway into the Hedge from his grandson's bedroom but the trail was too faint for them to follow. They threaten Lord Austin Derlath, the Duke of Paths, into helping them and he runs off to investigate for them. Verbal sparring (and throwing drinks) occurs between the Deep Enders and the Heirs. Constance George also takes part, angry about Alec's engagement to her grand-niece. The Duke of Paths reports that the Deep End would be better suited to drop the investigation as the path led not into the Hedge, but into The Dreamscape. 29 January 1997 The Grand Market at Harrods is set to appear this night and the members of the Deep End, having dealt with its operator The Cat and his right-hand Shaitana, will take ###### down into its depths. They see the Cat taking "lists" from assembled members of The Gentry, promising "delivery" soon. When the time comes for ###### to make his deal, the Cat takes ######'s first name as payment. Mr. Black asks to know what became of his son and grandson, but the Cat simply has some sort of horrible seizure that shakes the Market and causes even the True Fae to flee. Alec and Alice murder Shaitana because he will not tell Black where his son is. Shaitana immediately rises again as a Shade. 9 March 1997 During an initiation ceremony, The Man for All Seasons panics and discovers something is awry. All those in the Clockwork palace are ordered out of the Grand Ballroom, and a meeting of the highest officals in the Empire is called. PAGES MISSING 23 June 1997 The members of the Deep End arrange to meet the Thane of Cawdor, Lord Rictiovarus, at his hollow The Cavern so they might make use of his great artifact-The Mirror of History to try and find who took Mr. Black's son. Rictiovarus warns them they may need to make a sacrifice to get an answer from the Mirror, which he provides them with (a fatted calf). The Mirror refuses to tell them who took the boy (His requested sacrifice for that information is all of their souls) but will tell them Prince William was present for it. They hunt the Prince Imperial down at The Annex and torture him until he reveals that he A) likes killing young boys (among other things), B) He is one of "The Eleven" and they have no right to accost him and C) He didn't actually take the boy, but he was there when the boy WAS taken. The Empress Anne arrives and decides to avoid executing her pederast ward by sending him to America. 4 July 1997 A grand attack is to take place on Harrod's Market, intended to end the war and the villians of the Deep End lead the charge. While bombarding the city with catapults, the charge is made to kill The Cat and Shaitana. Alec and Alice manage to make it past hordes of ravaging monsters, past slave pits holding real live humans and things even less seemly to kill The Cat. The Cat was distracted by trying to communicate with some external force via a Palantir. After the Cat is beheaded a group of men in black medieval armor come to collect the remains. Using the Palantir, Alice sees King Henry, Baroness Crayle and Lord Rictiovarus in some unidentifiable room in the Clockwork Palace, reviewing papers and maps of London. On the other end of the battle Prince Martin observes The Duchess of Pledges murdering King Alexander III and his heir, Prince Gregor. She gives him a one-fingered shush and runs off. Martin follows only to run into a group of mages who have opened an untempered schism into the abyss and are letting Nihils pour out to assault the assembled Imperial forces from the rear. Martin manages to kill the assembled willworkers, but he cant do anything about the Nihils and is forced to flee their unquenchable hunger. 11 August 1997 The Anglo-Goblin War would be nice and wrapped up if the hordes in the hedge were not getting help from the Willworkers. With this in mind The Ambassador sets up a meeting between Dr. Steven Chandler, representitive for the Willworker's Council and Prince Martin. The meeting goes poorly, as insults and threats are issued and the meeting is quite politely crashed by Carlton Quay, of The Family Quay. Quay reafirms his families loyalty to the Empire and suggests that what happened to his people should happen to the Mages (near extermination). Dr. Chandler agrees to try and get the mages to back down. 30 August 1997 At the urging of Prince Lucas and Duke Mortimer, the Deep Enders try to get Dr. Steven Chandler and the Willworker's Council to agree to the nearly insane demand that they give up their magical strength or die. Alec kills several of the Council before cowing them into submission. The Willworkers claim it is an empty promise because the Winter Court lacks the raw magical power to back up such a change to the Charter (more glamour then seems possible would be required to make the pledge work). 31 August 1997 Princess Diana found dead in Paris. All of London plunged into mourning. In-the-know Changelings suddenly terrified of the Winter Court. 18 October 1997 The Dutchess of Pledges visits her lover Prince Martin to ask him to stand aside and allow the Empress Anne to be murdered (her oracle has declared that the Empress will be assassinated soon and the Deep Enders are the only ones that might stop it). They agree to let the Empress die. Later that day she is shot by a teenager wielding a revolver outside Guildhall (the teen is never apprehended, but is assumed to be under the influence of the goblins). 1 December 1997 At a Spring party in The Annex, Prince Lucas has a near breakdown over some sort of demand that Duke Mortimer has placed on him. He reveals one of the Empire's ultimate secrets to the Deep Enders: The Charter of the Land was destroyed in 1940, during the Blitz. The final scraps of the physical document were destroyed when Mr. Black sold his name, and the Empire went to war with the Goblins to preserve this knowledge (which they assumed the Goblins possessed thanks to Black's deal). PAGES MISSING 9 April 1998 A great battle occurs in The Cavern, where several Men in black WWII army uniforms break in and murder Lord Rictiovarus. The lead Blackmask takes its covering off to reveal King George. He is soon joined by Queen Mary. They make out in the rubble. PAGES MISSING Questions . . . Questions that Need Some Form Of Written Response For other questions see- The Master Question List *There were once over 1000 citizens in the empire? Why has it never gotten back to those levels? *What happened to all the kids? The old empire had lots of 5-15 year olds, today the empire has none. *What really happened to Mr. Black's son and grandson? How were the 11 Who Know and Prince William involved? *What were The Gentry buying from The Cat? Why? *What happened to The Cat? What was that seizure? Why was it so easy to kill? Category:Book Two Category:The Deep End